May 5, 2017
Background Information No. 020
To provide foreign youths with a single hub of information and services relating to working holidays in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has brought together resources and information from a number of other relevant ministries, establishing a one-stop website that offers information on a range of matters such as visa applications, travel and living in Taiwan, job vacancies, Mandarin language courses, and scholarships.
The program, which takes a holiday first, work second approach, is designed to help young foreigners experience Taiwan’s different cultures and lifestyles in as much depth as possible. The site, published at http://www.youthtaiwan.net/WorkingHolidayen/, was launched on April 5. All visitors are welcome and encouraged to spread the word among overseas friends.
The Youth Working Holiday Program is one of the government’s key efforts in terms of promoting international youth exchanges. The program allows young people aged from 18 to 35, from Taiwan and abroad, to experience culture and lifestyle through a holiday first, work second-style concept—an approach that allows participants to accumulate life experience, expand international perspective, raise individual competitiveness, and build independence and the ability to handle challenges through a combination of travel, study, short-term training and lawful work.
The program has enjoyed the keen interest and active engagement of Taiwanese youths since its inception in 2004, with more than 220,000 people having participated as of the end of 2016. To encourage greater numbers of foreign youths to visit Taiwan as part of the program, MOFA created the one-stop website by integrating a range of youth holiday-related promotion measures and regulations that fall under the jurisdiction of other ministries.
The site—grouped thematically into pages on working holidays in Taiwan, learning Mandarin, job opportunities, exploring Taiwan and news—provides an array of useful information on Taiwan’s geography, politics, economics, society and culture, as well as on regulations covering such matters as tourism, test-free driver’s licenses, job opportunities and income tax.
To assist foreign working holidaymakers in learning Mandarin during their stay in Taiwan, the website also hosts information on Mandarin language courses and related scholarships in the hope that holidaymakers can gain an understanding of Taiwan’s distinct form of traditional Chinese culture through the study of traditional Chinese characters.
To date, Taiwan has signed working holiday agreements with 15 countries: Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea in Asia and the Pacific; Canada in North America; and Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom in Europe. (E)